Right is right, left is wrong or: How I Learned to Stop

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Note 1: I have been to several countries, but never have I driven a vehicle outside India until now.

Note 2: Caution - speed bump ahead. This is a rant by an average Indian lost in the roads of a foreign land.
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If you are a holder of an Indian driver's license (international or not), and are employed by an American company, you are allowed to drive on American roads. You shouldn't be. Here's why.

You have to drive on the right side of the road! Now, one might think it isn't that much of a big deal, right? Wrong! When you are driving on an expressway (more on that later), it is okay, you have to keep straight. The trouble begins when you are at a crossing, and you have to turn left.

Pardon me, I am bad at drawing. But you do get the idea, right? And ALL the driving instincts that you developed back at home will force you to turn the car into the wrong side of the road! 

Inside American cars, everything is a mirror-image of how everything is placed inside Indian cars. The driving wheel is on the left instead of right, for example. I mean, of course this isn't as life threatening as turning into the wrong side of the road, but you do end up being taken aback when while trying to turn on the indicator, you end up switching on the wiper instead!

And if this wasn't enough, enter automatic-transmission. Yes, yes, there are those kinds in India too, but how many? Automatic-transmission cars have only two pedals that you need to operate, accelerator and brake. And you can get accelerator to work only by first hitting the brake! Aaaah, kill me!

In India, we have been brought up to think that we should be driving on the middle of the road. Like Kings. Well, that wouldn't go too well here. You don't have to drive over the dotted white line on the road, but between the lines! "Keep to your own lane", is the motto on the road. And, if you really must change lanes, you need to flash the indicator, look into the three rear-view mirrors, then actually look back to confirm that there is no-one just behind you because of the blind-spot in the rear-view mirrors, and then gradually change lanes! All this while keeping an eye on the speed so you don't cross the limit. Goodness! And even the gradual shifting is difficult because we are accustomed only to 90° turns, not changing lanes when we have to go straight! Who changes lanes going straight?!


And then there are expressways. High-speed roads which connect long distances. You can get on or get off an expressway by taking the ramp or the exit respectively. Speed limits. Speed limits on these expressways are typically in the range of 60 mph (96.5 kmph) to 75 mph (120 kmph). Funny thing about the speed-limit is that it isn't so much the limit on the speed, as it is the speed you are expected to drive! 50 mph, and you are going too slow (and have cars overtake you left and right!). Plus, you can push it to 65 mph on a 60 mph limit. So much that the cars on an expressway are more-or-less at a zero relative velocity to each other. (Yes, the concepts of uniform motion you learnt in school come-in handy.) Which also means that you can change lanes if there is no-one to your left or right, irrespective of someone being in front of you or behind you, a concept which takes a LOT of getting used to.


The savior, of course, is the GPS. Without it, you are lost in the concrete jungle. Except, when the GPS goes on harping, "Take EXIT! Take EXIT!", and you see no exit! "Ah, there it was.", you would go, right after you've missed it. And do not worry if you miss an exit. Your loyal siri-like GPS would "recalculate" the route for you, and ask you to take the next exit, provided you see it of course. All this, is of course easier than following instructions such as - "Turn right, and then keep left on highway XYZ". Turn right and then keep left?! Yes, 'cause if you don't, the road branching on the right will take you some place else! Yes, and then there are "Right only", "Must exit", "Left only" lanes. And if by the grace of God you land up on a "Right only" lane by mistake, turn right, no matter what. No stop, reverse, get-on-the-right-track for this country.


And finally, the Stop Sign. A marvel of traffic engineering, something that is NEVER going to work in India. When you see a stop sign, you stop. Stop, stop, stop. And the one who arrived at the stop sign first, gets to go first! I arrive at a stop sign, and every time, every single time, I marvel at the civility with which people stop, and then wait for everyone who arrived before them to go, and then go their own way. I can NEVER imagine something like this working in India, because here, the one who can go first, goes first. Everywhere.


Right is right, left is wrong or: How I Learned to Stop...

The Dark Knight trilogy

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Note 1: I have never watched a movie in IMAX. Until now. My first experience of IMAX was Nolan's 'The Dark Knight Trilogy', how fitting is that! \m/

Note 2: No-one needs to sell this trilogy to anyone, and this post doesn't attempt to. This, is a long personal rant about the almost religious experience I had. Tip: Do watch 'Batman Begins' again before watching TDKR. Ah, and I have marked the TDKR spoilers.
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Batman Begins 

When a forest grows too wild, a purging fire is inevitable and natural.

Beginning is the end of the beginning. A storm is coming.

Let's say our caped crusader failed to prevent Ra's Al Ghul from releasing the toxin in the entire city, and Gotham was really torn apart. Out of it would have been born a new Gotham, like how a Phoenix rises from its ashes. This theme is reminiscent of Necessary Evil in 'Watchmen', or the destruction of Zion following the occurrence of the anomaly in 'The Matrix trilogy'. Assuming this to be the natural cycle of things - creation, sustenance, and eventual destruction, this makes Ra's Al Ghul (or, the League of Shadows) the hero of our story, and Batman, the anti-hero.

Of course, Batman saves the day before the people of Gotham collapse their city due to the toxin-induced fear and panic. Fear, or overcoming fear, is the most explicit and loudest theme in 'Begins'. What does overcoming fear mean? Does it mean the absence of our fears altogether, or does it mean channelizing it, and turning it against the ones we want to fight? And what do we really fear? Death? Ourselves? And love? Do we fear love because we don't understand it, and because of the grief and pain that it causes?

That impossible anger strangling the grief, until the memory of your loved one is just... poison in your veins.

The Dark Knight

What about escalation? 

Enter Joker - "Mind if I cut in?". What follows is total, absolute chaos. Joker pushes Batman to his limits, like he had been never before, and Gotham is engulfed in anarchy. Every action will have a reaction, and the harder you hit, the harder you will be hit.

This is how crazy Batman's made Gotham.

Continuing the hypothesis about Begins, Gotham must burn, and Gotham is presented with Joker this time, an agent of chaos. Batman has to face something which he cannot match. With Joker, there is Nothing Out There which could be used to threaten him with. Nothing to do with all of Batman's strength. The knight is darkest just before the dawn.

You know the thing about chaos? It's fair. 

The Dark Knight Rises


Bane is Gotham's Reckoning. Following the events that happened in Begins, Bane is a mercenary who leads an Underground Army to fulfill Ra's Al Ghul's destiny. It has been 8 years since Batman took the fall for Harvey Dent, a figure Gotham now worships, and Batman, declared an outlaw. Gotham's rebuilding is based on a lie, which puts Gotham On Thin Ice and threatens to shake the very foundations it stands on. Batman is not broken mentally this time, he is broken physically. This is pure adrenalin-fueled muscle-fight. This is not an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object, this is the meeting of two unstoppable forces. And Gotham really burns as The Fire Rises. This movie is about facing your demons. Accepting them, and making your peace with them. Is Gotham really beyond saving?

Why do we fall?

((spoilers))

Batman's fears come back to haunt him as he hits the lowest point in his life, literally. The sequence about fear being essential quality for life, and it being the emotion that gives you the impulse in the single moment when it really matters, is mind-numbing.

Is it fear that makes us love? Or love, that makes us afraid? Batman must learn to be afraid again, and Batman must learn to love again. Batman must learn to let go, because Fear will Find You. Batman must remember how it felt like when he was really afraid. And Batman must remember how it felt like when he was truly in love. He must Imagine the Fire that once burned within him, and made him. And it is fear, and love, which saves Batman, and ultimately, Gotham. I feel so happy that the 'pit' sequences were filmed in India! It is the moment of truth for Batman in the entire series. And you cannot help but cheer our (un)masked hero when he, Rises.

The people's court sequences are neatly executed, and Death By Exile masterfully crafted. The movie also brings the story to a full circle as John Blake, a Gotham police officer, Born in Darkness, someone who shares a story similar to Batman's childood, rises in the Bat cave.

((end spoilers))

If you like hot women riding bikes, and if you loved Carrie-Anne Moss riding a Ducati in 'Matrix Reloaded', or if you loved Angelina Jolie in the motorcycle chase in 'Tomb Raider', wait till you see Anne Hathaway riding the Batpod! O. My. God. ♥ And goodness the moment when Catwoman goes "Don't be shy"! Anne Hathaway adds delicious sparks to the already spectacular fireworks.

And of course, this would be incomplete if Hans Zimmer's brilliant score spanning the complete trilogy isn't mentioned. He does well to maintain the grim, dark, and Despair consistently.

This movie makes 'Batman Begins' the most important film in the trilogy. 'Rises' is a fitting conclusion to a brilliant trilogy. Dey-shey bah-sur-rah. Rise.

The Dark Knight trilogy

The trilogy is epic, almost operatic. Batman, a romantic, tragic hero.

There are people and critics who go all "Rises isn't as good as the second movie." Newsflash - there isn't a second or a third movie! This is one story, told in three parts. And I find a lot of people saying that old characters weren't given enough space, and that there were too many new characters introduced. Well, I don't think that there was any other way to end the story fittingly. Compare it to a Shakespearean tragedy, where the climax happens in Act. III, new characters introduced in Act. IV, and Act. V is wrapping up of sorts. Would it be fair to say that Act. V lacked wherein Act. III excelled? Each part has it's own role to play in the big picture, the grand story. And Nolan did right in selling this movie as the "conclusion" to the Dark Knight story.

Nolan got the world eagerly waiting for the final installment, and I haven't been this excited about a movie is a looong time. rottentomatoes had to ban comments on TDKR reviews for a few days, and imdb is still awaiting "5 votes" before releasing the ratings. Now that's something!

((spoilers))

"This is it.", says Nolan about his future involvement with DC properties related to the Batman. But he did end the movie in a way the movie studio could exploit in their future outings with the Batman. Joseph Gordon-Levitt would most certainly make a good Batman. 'Justice league' movie has already been announced. 'Man of Steel' releases next year. From the trailer and the information released so far, it deals with a young Superman's coming-of-age story. It would then hardly be a surprise if 'Man of Steel', 'Justice League', and the Batman "reboot" slated for 2015 are set in the same movie universe as this.

((end spoilers))

Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called 'The Pledge' (Batman Begins). The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course... it probably isn't. The second act is called 'The Turn' (The Dark Knight). The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back. That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call 'The Prestige'. (The Dark Knight Rises)

I cannot wait for what Nolan offers to us next. I cannot seem to think of any other director who has offered such disciplined film-making to our generation. Maybe it isn't Batman, but Nolan speaking to us:

You don't owe these people any more. You've given them, everything.

Not everything. Not yet.

IMAX vs 3D

IMAX is truly the movie format of/for the future. If 'Avatar' was the flag-bearer for 3D motion pictures, then 'The Dark Knight Rises' most certainly is for IMAX. With over 70 minutes of footage shot using IMAX cameras on its proprietary 70 mm film, this is the first major full-length motion picture to achieve this.

Having watched a lot of 3D movies recently, and regretting it, IMAX cannot disappoint by design. While you can pick and choose which scenes to shoot in IMAX, the complete movie has to be in 3D, an inherent flaw. I can only imagine how much more gorgeous 'Avatar' would have looked had it been shot on IMAX. When the scenes in 'Rises' switch to those shot on IMAX, you are suspended in a moment of disbelief and awe, as you are presented with truly breathtaking imagery. The official IMAX logo gets it right, you have to see it to believe it. 

The format of the future definitely needs to extend, 3D just got the dimension wrong!


The Dark Knight trilogy...

Arjun: The Warrior Prince

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Note 1: Forget your prejudice against Indian animation movies and give this movie a chance to delight you.

Note 2: Friends, Indian animation has arrived.
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यतो धर्मः ततो जय 

Where there is truth, there is victory

These are the lines with which 'Arjun: The Warrior Prince' opens. To me, this is not so much the beginning of the movie as it is the beginning of a new era for animated movies conceived and produced in India. I have my problems with the movie, but I am willing to overlook them for the sheer joy and the hope that this movie gives me about the future of the indigenous animation industry.


+
Before anything else, I want to applaud the voice acting. It does NOT sound like the gibberish we resort to when talking to 3-year-olds (or how the shows sound like on Cartoon Network today). It sounds like an adult conversation, and that is a big breakthrough. The kids deserve it. Also, it tells us that the people making these movies are taking this genre seriously, and are not making it just for kids.


+
The animation style and quality is reminiscent of the 90s Disney movies (incidentally, Disney has co-produced this movie), and it is a good thing. The movie is no 'Wall-E', neither does it claim to be. But it is an important step in the right direction. That we are getting there, slow and steady. The animation succeeds in striking the audience with awe and grandeur, to an audience largely fed on Hollywood. And this, is a HUGE achievement. The character design is brilliant for most of the characters, especially Bheesma Pitamah, Dhritrashtra, Duryodhan, and Draupadi. Few could have been better though, like Shakuni mama.


+
The story is NOT (the slightest bit) faithful to the Mahabharat, which is simultaneously the story's strength and weakness. How do you make an engaging 90-minute animation movie about the HUGE epic, the Mahabharat? Simple, you don't. You assess what you would be capable of doing, and you execute it well.

They have re-imagined and re-interpreted Arjun's story, and told it well. The narrative-twist after intermission is brilliant, to say the least. The facts are not wrong because of bad research, but because the director wanted to tell a good story. Hence it doesn't matter if he isn't faithful to the source material, as long as the idea is conveyed. Why this makes me happy is because the film-makers were bold enough to re-imagine something like Mahabharat, knowing that they were being true to their art. And I applaud them for it.


+
The music, especially during the war sequences, is grand, epic, and Indian. And I loved it. So much that I'd buy the OST if it were made available.


This movie deserves to be seen, and I would say that it should every parent's responsibility to take their kids for this one. If this movie succeeds, I can be sure that we would be churning out top-notch animation from our country soon enough. I think this movie would give the producers the confidence to invest and ramp-up the budget for making such and better animated movies.

One thing though, which didn't work for me - they shouldn't have added "The Warrior Prince" to the title.





Arjun: The Warrior Prince...

An Open Letter to India’s recruiting companies

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Note 1: I saw this article on NYTimes Blog which was trending on facebook today. These are my personal views.

Note 2: Sir, your post was enriching. This is the other side.
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Dear Recruiter, 

This is your new employee. I agree, life is good - except, it's not. But, it works both ways.


(1) You speak and write English fluently

I am not so surprised you mentioned this, considering that it might be needed in your field of work. I am wondering though, how much? Not that I deny that everyone does not have an impeccable English. But a lot do. Enough to communicate their ideas and thoughts clearly, consistently, and effectively. Especially when we Indians do have a basic foundation in English, and improving it is only a matter of spending some time working. Unless you tell me that we are stubborn enough to not work or improve at all. That would be a different story. Ah, and there are hundreds of blogs on the Internet like this dedicated to resume faux-pas.

My primary concern though with you flagging this as issue number one is that, you really feel that Indians should have an impeccable command on a language when it is not their native tongue. Not that it doesn't help, it does definitely, in an era of global business. But having worked with global teams (Japan, Latin America, China, Western Europe), where their English skills aren't perfect either, I don't see how that is so detrimental to doing business.


(2) You are good at problem solving, thinking outside the box, seeking new ways of doing things

We are. And for people good at problem solving, there has to be an ecosystem which promotes them to think outside the box. Few companies do, but a lot don't. It is therefore hardly a surprise when I find a lot of my fellow graduates complaining that they don't find their jobs "challenging" enough, or them having enough "freedom", for them to continue in their role. This, after they graduated from one of the best universities in the country, and got recruited by companies among the biggest corporate-brands in the world.

We are not dumb either. I don't know enough about chartered accountancy to comment on it, or on your British colleague's views, but here's what the results of 2010 of Chartered Financial Accountancy (CFA) look like:

• India: 9,871 test-takers - Pass percentage 40.
• United Kingdom: 7,373 test-takers - Pass percentage 42.

(Source: CFA Institute Announces June 2010 Worldwide CFA Exam Results)

(3) You ask questions, engage deeply and question hierarchy

We try. At least the first couple of times. And we don't stop until we feel it is futile. Of course not everyone has the determination and stubbornness to keep going on-and-on even if there is no feedback. There has to be an eco-system in place. I know the company I work for takes it seriously, and we see results. It would be interesting to know how many destructively-innovative ideas are taken seriously by the management across companies in India, or see the light of day, to know why people tend to be passive or non-questioning.


(4) You take responsibility for your career and for your learning and invest in new skills

That we definitely do. And the point is put in place by your 5th argument when you say that we hop jobs a lot. Why shouldn't we? We have a career to make. Retention is the company's responsibility, and if it is not able to, it is failure on the part of the company. That's how capitalism works.


(5) You are professional and ethical: Everyone loves to be considered a professional

This is the only argument in the post which I found to be India-oriented. Ethics is a problem here, but not exclusive to the demographic dealt in the post. Not that this is an excuse for us young graduates, but change has to be across segments of people.


I have duly noted that these are five extremely important attributes for a successful career, and I have tried to start with number 3.


An Open Letter to India’s recruiting companies...

Multiple Chrome-gasms: Youtube Ed.

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Note 1: I have professed my love for Chrome before. Here's some more.

Note 2: Yes, yes. This is a cheap way for me to get a new post up on my blog. Just like the previous Chrome post. :|
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We all use Youtube. A lot. And sometimes, I find myself saying, "I wish it was possible to ... on youtube." It gets irritating sometimes. Here are some of the brilliant things you can do with Youtube using Chrome extensions:

1)
ChromeTunes.
Make a music player out of youtube right inside your browser.

So, you install this beautiful looking extension, make a playlist on Youtube, and add it to this extension. So now you have a music player in your browser, powered by Youtube. And yes, the player offers looping of playlist/songs. So that's one headache gone. And, you can search playlists on youtube from within this extension and play them. So on a fine sunny Sunday morning, all you need to do it search "old hindi songs", and there you have it - a fine sunny Sunday morning with music.

2)
Picture-In-Picture For YouTube.

I love this one! Imagine you are watching a tutorial, or a loooooong speech. You want to be able to magically switch tabs and multi-task, listen/refer to the video, or occasionally take a glimpse of the video. After installing this extension, you will see a "PIP" button below your video. Click, and enjoy multi-tasking while watching the video!

3)
Popout for YouTube. 

If you want more flexibility than Picture-in-Picture, and you want the video to completely pop-out of the browser window, use this. It adds a button on the top right to pop-out the video. Of course, Picture-in-Picture fits better in a use-case where you want to primarily work on the browser while doing your work.

4)
YouTube Downloader.

It's so difficult to find a downloader for youtube which actually works! Well, this one does. It adds a button below the video to download the video, in mp3 or HD video.

5)
Skip ads on YouTube.

Ever got frustrated of waiting for 30 seconds to compulsorily watch an ad before you can watch the awesome video you just opened? This extension adds a button above the video to skip the ad and immediately start the video.

6)
Auto Replay for YouTube.

Adds an option below the video to play the video on loop. Even only a part of the video.


Bonus: I get annoyed ever so often because I have streamed a video to watch later, then I play it, switch to full-screen, and bam! All the effort gone down the ditch, because youtube starts streaming "HD" quality for the full-screen. Guess what youtube, I don't want HD! Fortunately, there is a way to turn it off. Access your youtube settings (while logged into youtube) here. Choose "I have a slow connection. Never play higher-quality video", and hit save. Phew.


Multiple Chrome-gasms: Youtube Ed. ...

The Artist

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Note 1: Wow, it's been some time since I blogged about movies!

Note 2: I think I am a little late with this post. It won 5 Oscars today, including 3 of the big ones. But I watched this movie only yesterday.
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In the recent times, the movies I have felt about very strongly have rarely won the Best film at the Oscars, like 'Black Swan' (2010), 'Inglourious Basterds' (2009), or 'The Dark Knight' (2008). This year was different.


Before I go into the movie, let me tell you an anecdote. So, there was a small kid, who loved Biryani. He had a few favorite places though, where the Biryani you get, he thought, was nothing like the mediocre stuff you get elsewhere. Often, his grandfather, knowing his love for Biryani, took him to one of his favorite joints, and together they had a nice time out. There was one thing that annoyed him though, that his grandfather would always complain that the Biryani they make today is nothing like what they used to have "in his times". Then one day, his grandfather took him to this really old and small place tucked away in the corner of nowhere, and there, from the first bite of the Biryani that he took, to the point when he just couldn't have another morsel, the kid truly understood what his grandfather had meant all along. What he had just experienced was legend, and myth.


You will be aware every minute of the 100 minutes that 'The Artist' runs, of how romantically this film has been made. It is like the director is speaking to a lost love from a different era. And this, has very subtly been personified in the movie. This is what will stand out for me from the movie - Love. It portrays a different kind of love, distilled into its truest and purest form. The kind that isn't maligned with the selfish emotion of man. The kind that fills your heart with such warmth that you walk out of the theater with a big smile and feeling all fuzzy inside.

The scenes have been crafted with such perfection that you wonder if the director is really a magician. You applaud the details that have gone into painting every frame like it was a piece of historic art on the canvas, and the parallels that the movie has to offer. The specific scene where George Valentin discovers that he is still silent in a world that has begun to talk is a masterpiece. Or the scene where even his shadow abandons him. Or towards the end, when the movie literally ends with a 'Bang!'. Story-wise, it is gratifying that what happens on screen is what you expect to happen (in a restoring-faith-into-humanity sort of way).

The film succeeds on so many different levels, and considering that the film hardly had any words, that it is ironic how no number of words would be enough to describe the genius that this movie is. It even makes sense if you draw parallels with the state of contemporary cinema, where the major production houses have decided that "3D is the next big thing", and that "you will be left behind if you don't jump ships." Or man's path towards self-destruction. Or of melting pride and arrogance.

And boy can I speak enough about Jean Dujardin! What a controlled performance! I can see him transitioning to Hollywood soon enough, following the footsteps of Christoph Waltz. A truly well-deserved Oscar. (Although, my sympathies go out for George Clooney.)

I can understand if people would want to pass this movie - a black-and-white silent film, shot in 4:3 aspect ratio, with a lower framerate. Therefore, I strongly urge that you watch this film. It is a gem which, to watch in a theater is a privilege, and is the kind that succeeds in re-kindling the sublime romance that has been lost.

The Artist...

He

He loved. And He believed it had one center. Like a circle. He had always thought of a 'circle' as perfect. And He, truly felt perfection.

The center of the universe He lived in had shifted. For the first time in life, He found, and discovered, He.

He loved.

Hit, He was wounded. Circle wasn't so perfect, after-all.

Perfection was in imperfection, two centers, not one. An ellipse. He learnt, He loved.